Supplementary Protection Certificates

Mewburn Ellis has an experienced team working to obtain Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs), which will effectively extend the protection of patented active ingredients present in pharmaceutical or plant protection products.

In 1993 Mewburn Ellis handled the UK’s first SPC application for leuprorelin. Since then we have amassed over twenty years’ continuous experience in prosecuting SPCs and advising on European SPC law and practice.

Unparalleled SPC experience

Our SPC team works alongside our life sciences and chemical patent attorneys who work in the pharmaceutical and agricultural science sectors. In total, so far we have handled the prosecution of around 400 SPC applications. Approximately one sixth of these applications were filed directly by us at the UKIPO. We have not restricted ourselves to dealing with individual UK SPC applications. We have also advised on and coordinated large families of SPC applications across Europe. And we have been involved in prosecutions in over 30 European countries. The breadth of our experience means we have gained a detailed understanding of different European practices and we are now highly adept at handling these differences. We have prosecuted, and provided advice on, SPC applications for medicinal products and plant protection products. We have also been responsible for prosecuting UK SPC applications for clients in the medtech and food & beverage sectors for products not clearly covered by the SPC law, such as medical devices and food additives.